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J. L. GETAZ CIRCULAR KNIT HOSIERY AND METHOD OF FORMING THE. FOOT OF SAFiled Jan. 31, 1958 INVENTOR JAMES L. 65732 BY 4412;, f/ml 511 MATTORNEYS United States Patent Filed 52m. 31, 158, Ser. No. 712,379 2fliaims. (Cl. 66186) This invention is related to knitted hosiery andparticularly to a novel hosiery construction, and to a method of closingthe toe of hose which are knitted on circular knitting machines.

As mentioned in my Patent No. Re. 24,314, the closing of the toe incircular knit hosiery according to the method which has been generallyused is a diflicult operation. The closure is made by a seam which runsacross the foot near the toes and it extends halfway around the sides ofthe foot, and because of its location it must be a flat seam in order tobe comfortable to the wearer. To make this seam in a satisfactory mannerit is necessary for the operator to place by hand each loop at the endof the toe portion of the hose on one of the points of the dial or" alooping machine. This operation is tedious and requires a long period oftraining on the part of the operator before sufiicient skill can beobtained.

In my patent mentioned above, I have shown a construction of hose inwhich the closure of the opening at the end of the foot is made by alongitudinal seam on the bottom of the foot and which may be made on asewing machine without the manual operation of putting the loopsindividually on the points of the looper dial. As so many women haveworn full fashioned hose they are used to a seam on the bottom or thefoot and this method has proved to be satisfactory, especially for themanufacture of ladies hose. The seam is out of sight even when worn withshoes which are low cut or are open at the end of the toe, and hosewhich are made in this way fit the shape of the foot and are comfortableto the wearer.

From the manufacturers point of view there is a great advantage in usingthis construction because there is very iittle expense required inchanging knitting machines which have een used in making ladies hose inthe usual manner to the construction of hose as shown in my patent.These machines have been designed to make the opening at the end of thefoot on the bottom side of the toe portion, so that it is only necessaryto change some knitting needles and a few cams on the drum of theknitting machine to change machines from one construction of ladies hoseto the other.

It is the purpose of this invention to provide an alternate method forclosing the toe which is especially suitable for the manufacture of mensand childrens hose. This alternate method has the same advantage asshown in my Patent Re. 24,314 for avoiding the tedious process oflooping and it also provides a means for changing the knitting machineswhich are now in use for making mens and childr'ens hose at minimumcost.

As is well known to the trade, in practically all circular knit hosierythe leg and foot are knitted by continuous rotation of the cylinder andthe heel and toe are knitted by a reciprocating movement. But there is abasic difference in the clutch mechanism which changes the movement ofthe cylinder back and forth between continuous rotation andrciprocation. In all machines which make ladies hose, the clutch isdesigned to engage the cylinder to place the opening at the end of thehose on the bottom side of the foot. And in all machines which make mensand childrens hose a more simple clutch mechanism is used which placesthis opening on the instep side of the foot. To change the clutchmechanism of the latter machines to place the opening on the bottom ofthe foot is expensive. As there are about 65,000 of these machines nowin use making mens and childrens hose, there is a commercial probleminvolved in changing all of these machines, and to save cost and delay,methods are shown in this application for closing the toe with a seam onthe instep side of the foot.

As mens and childrens hose are placed on the feet by the wearer, the bigtoe is generally in the tip of the toe pocket and the center of theinstep portion follows the ridge of the foot which is formed by themetatarsal bone of the big toe. This may be noticed in hosiery which hasfancy patterns in the foot such as large diamonds, the points which arethe center of these patterns follow the line of this metatarsal linewhen the hose are being Worn. In the methods which are shown in thisapplication, the seam which closes the toe may be placed directly onthis metatarsal line or the knitting machine may be so adjusted as toplace this seam to one side of this line.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIGURE 1 shows the hose as it comes from the knitting machine with theopening on the instep side of the foot and to one side of the metatarsalline.

' FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of the finished hose, as made accordingto FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a diagrammatic representation of the arrangement of theneedles in the cylinder of the knitting machine for placing the openingto one side of the center line of the instep of the hose, as shown inFIGURE 1.

FIGURE 4 shows the arrangement of the needles in the cylinder of theknitting machine for placing the seam on the center of the instep of thehose.

In most knitting machines the rotation of the cylinder in eachreciprocating movement is one complete revolution, though in some typesof machines this rotation may be more than 360 degrees. As shown inFIGURE 3, the cylinder I rotates one complete revolution in eachreciprocation and it is shown with the position of the needles at theend of each stroke as they are located if it is desired to place theopening above the side of the metatarsal line. The vertical line KLpasses through the center of the knitting cams at K and these camsextend from M to N.

In making a stocking the knitting begins at the top A (FIGURE 1) andcontinues with the cylinder rotating in one direction until the point Bis reached. At this point the movement of the cylinder is changed toreciprocation, the medium butt needles MS (FIGURE 3) and the long buttneedles MN are raised out of action and the heel is knitted on the shortbutt needles SN. Continuous rotation is resumed after completion of theheel and continues to point 16 (FIGURE 1). At this point, the long buttneedles MN (FIGURE 3) are raised out of action and the toe portion isknitted on the medium butt needles MS and the short butt needles S-N,beginning with a long course from this point 10 past the point 18 to thepoint 10' on the other side of the hose. The position of these points 10and 10 in the fabric corresponds with the position of needles N and M inthe cylinder. Beginning at 10, narrowing gore portions 10-12 and 10-12'are formed which are much longer than the ordinary gore which is made inknitting the toe, by raising one or more needles at a time at eitherside of the group MSN upon each stroke of reciprocation, and as thesegore portions are knitted the sole portion of the toe is formed.

After the narrowing of the gores 10-12 and 10'-12' is completed all ofthe raised needles may be put back into action at once, but thepreferred method is to pull down a few of the raised needles one at atime on successive reciprocations of the cylinder, and then pull all ofthe remaining needles back into action at once. When the opening 16 hasbeen reached, the hose is cast from the knitting machine and, as shownin FIGURE 2, the opening is closed by sewing a seam of stitches 11-17which extend lengthwise of the foot on the instep side approximatelyequidistant between the gore portions 10-12 and 10'12'. The marginalfabric beyond this seam 11-17 is cut off and discarded. As may be seenin FIGURE 2, this scam lies in the instep to one side of the metatarsalline, where it may be more acceptable to the trade than if placed in thecenter.

The preferred construction of this invention is to place the opening andthe seam of closure to one side of the center line, so that the seamwill not lie along the metatarsal bone of the big toe. The extent towhich the seam is off center may be varied by changing the relativepositions of the medium butt and short butt needles in the needlecylinder, and if it is desired to place the scam in the center, theneedles are arranged as shown in FIGURE 4. The heel is knitted on theshort butt needles PR and the toe portion is knitted on the medium buttneedles M-P, the short butts PR and the medium butts RN. The long buttneedles N-M are in the same position as shown in FIGURE 3. By shiftingthe center of the heel on the knitting machine, the center of the toeportion is shifted on the foot of the wearer.

I claim:

1. In circular knit hose, a foot portion, gores extending forwardly anddownwardly along each side of said foot portion, and a seam of stitchesclosing said foot portion, said seam extending longitudinally of saidfoot portion and along the instep side thereof, said seam being locatedto one side of the centerline of the instep side of said foot portion.

2. In circular knit hose, a foot portion, gores extending forwardly anddownwardly along each side of said foot portion, one of said gores beinghigher than the other, and a seam of stitches closing said foot portion,said seam extending longitudinally of said foot portion and along theinstep side thereof, said seam being located to one side of thecenterline of the instep side of said foot portion generally equidistantbetween said gores.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS414,479 Appleton Nov. 5 ,1889 449,925 Appleton Apr. 7, 1891 1,459,497Bosworth June 19, 1923 1,853,519 Page Apr. 12, 1932 2,416,331 Lang Feb.25, 1947 2,440,280 Lawson Apr. 27, 1948 2,658,365 Lawson Nov. 10, 19532,740,277 Lombardi Apr. 3, 1956 2,821,847 Getaz Feb. 4, 1958

